Do Temporary Workers Face Higher Wage Markdowns? Evidence from India's Automotive Sector

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Luparello, Davide
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866918171929214976
author Luparello, Davide
author_facet Luparello, Davide
contents Contract workers constitute half of India's automotive employment but earn substantially less than permanent workers. Using ASI data (2002-2019), I develop an estimator of labor supply and demand schedules to explain this wage premium. The model features worker-type-specific discrete choice labor supply, nested CES production, Nash-Bertrand competition for contract workers, and plant-union bargaining for permanent workers. I find the premium stems entirely from higher productivity rather than differential monopsony power. While a lump-sum transfer offsetting wage markdowns would increase welfare by 14% for permanent and 12% for contract workers, it would simultaneously increase the premium by 14%, exacerbating inequality.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2507_08222
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Do Temporary Workers Face Higher Wage Markdowns? Evidence from India's Automotive Sector
Luparello, Davide
General Economics
Economics
Contract workers constitute half of India's automotive employment but earn substantially less than permanent workers. Using ASI data (2002-2019), I develop an estimator of labor supply and demand schedules to explain this wage premium. The model features worker-type-specific discrete choice labor supply, nested CES production, Nash-Bertrand competition for contract workers, and plant-union bargaining for permanent workers. I find the premium stems entirely from higher productivity rather than differential monopsony power. While a lump-sum transfer offsetting wage markdowns would increase welfare by 14% for permanent and 12% for contract workers, it would simultaneously increase the premium by 14%, exacerbating inequality.
title Do Temporary Workers Face Higher Wage Markdowns? Evidence from India's Automotive Sector
topic General Economics
Economics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.08222